Sharing my Little World

John Green

I think to articulate my feelings correctly we have to start from the beginning. January 2012 is when the book The Fault in Our Stars came out. I had been watching Vlogbrothers (John Green and his brother Hank’s youtube channel) sporadically for a little bit. I’d heard so much about the book I picked it up on a whim (Ironically the same day John and Hank would be in my area on the book tour. I was attending another youtube related event the same night about an hour away).

I read the book in two days as Young Adult novels really only take me a day or two to read. Needless to say I was in tears by the end of it. I’m a cryer. I cry at everything. Sometimes Visa commercials make me cry. But The Fault in Our Stars is a severely sad story. It pulled at all of my heartstrings for a love that should have lasted years to be cut short and for the pain that the characters had to go through everyday because of their cancer. I think this book is what made me a Nerdfighter.

I recommended it to everyone I knew and I let my mom read my copy when she was looking for something to read. I even lent it to my mom’s friend. Everyone should read this book. I wouldn’t call it my favorite book, but it’s an important book that I think everyone should read.

The movie version came out last Friday so my mom and I went to see it on Sunday. I skipped out on the preview night and first night showings because I knew there would be a lot of “fangirl noise” and I wanted to experience the movie quietly.

The movie was fantastic. Not only was it a ridiculously faithful adaption of the book (almost line by line really), but it was just a good movie. There were a lot of really fun things about it. I especially liked the way they depicted text messages. The movie is about teenagers and teenagers like to text. There is a lot of texting in the book and the movie. The way the filmmakers handled the texting aspect of the story was really fun and fresh.

There were some things cut out of the movie, but it didn’t detract from the story or the feel of the movie like some other book to film adaptions I’m looking at you Harry Potter. I’m not sure I’m completely sold on Shailene Woodly as an actress (I didn’t really care for her in Divergent), but she did a great job as Hazel. And Ansel Elgort played Augustus Waters beautifully, pretentious metaphors and all. Though I think my favorite was Nat Wolf as Isaac (I am ridiculously excited to see him as Q in Paper Towns).

The greatest thing about this movie (and the book) is how it shows people with chonic diseases and disabilities. It’s not wholly about Having Cancer. It’s about People who have cancer. Their lives and the struggles they go through to live and love and have a fulfilling life. It’s about love and leaving your mark, even if it’s just on a few people.

I think my mother and I both enjoyed the movie a lot. I didn’t cry as much as I thought I would (but the tears were flowing), but it was a great way to spend the afternoon with my mother.